St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-12-07
WELLMAh s Il 2iN (

painted house on a bluff overlooking
Oakdale avenue, hundred yards this
side of No. $40. 1t is a two story frame,
and quite dilapidated The upper rooms
are bare, and also the lower rooms, with
one exception, and the absence of glass
or even frames give the place haunted,
dreary appearance, to say nothing of the
chill that pervades the entire structures
In little room in the right-hand corner
nine feet wide and twenty feet DONG
lives man named Wellman, his wife
and child. The room contains bed,
stove, chair and table. These take up
most of the space and one IS
OBLIGED TO WALK SIDEWAYS
to move about. But two feet intervene
between the foot of the bed aid the
stove, and the five feet between the
stove and the other end of the room
comprise the only vacant space. In the
bed lies Wellman, quite sick with some
disease or pain;in the lungs. He has
been unable to work for weeks. Before
he was Frustrated he had purchased
enough potatoes to last all winter, but
they were frozen with the exception of
peck, perhaps. His family has been
living OH these frozen potatoes. Mrs.
Wellman is soon to become a mother,
and must necessarily occupy the bed
now occupied by her sick husband,
who DR.. Ancker, the city physician,
says cannot arise for several weeks.
Their wood is about gone; their provis-
ions consist of some dry bread, little
butter and some coffee, and the cover
ing on the bed is merely one extremely
thin blanket. Over Mr.. Well
man some old coats had been
thrown, but the wide crack
under the door gives the cold free ac-
cess and consequently no foul smell
turks within the room Mrs. Wellman
is an honest Swede and tried to be
cheerful. What they would have done
had the case not been discovered is be-
yOnd conjecture even. The infant on
the floor would have been obliged to
care for himself. and the sick mother
and father likewise. Unable to leave
the house. they could not report their
own restitution, and it was kindly re-
ported by neighbor. 1t is, without
exception. the worst case of misery the
reporter has yet seen. Mr.. Wellman
had been a drinking man, but right
there in the room before us he took a
solemn pledge to abstain in future.
1t was solemn scene. There stood the
reporter, with hat removed; the poor
woman eagerly watching her husband
as,claSping Mr.. HutchinS' hand, he faith
fully made his promise, and even the
babe seemed to have caught the spirit
of solemnity and ceased his frantic
gyrations. They will be aided at once.
In Connemara patch, with her sister,
Mrs. Ross, lives Mrs. Mitchell, Scotch
widow aged sixty-three. She has a
miserably small room to live in, and is
quite destitute of everything. Mrs.
Ross cannot aid her, as she has hard
time to live herself. The more than
usual amount of filth about the place
gives it dreadful and
SICKENING APPEARANCE.
Mrs. Ross is the mother of fourteen
children, four of them grown, vet I'M
able to secure work. Her sons chill
dren also live here, and one or two of
them have died. However, the usual
Scotch fortitude prevails in spite of all
these distressing facts.
At $40 Oakdale avenue, Mrs. Foss is
having rather trying experience.
Three weeks ago, when confined to. her
bed by childbirth, her husband rtlied.
He owned certain property, but neg
lected to make it over to his wife before
his death. Though she could live quite
comfortably with the property, sheis
unable to secure possession, and has
thus been compelled to appeal to the
Relief society for aid. Mr.. Hutehins
has taken hold of the case and will see
the probate judge in regard to it. Mrs.
FosS is still quite weak from herslate
illness, but is doing what she can to
care for her family aud secure thepropt
erty, rightfully hers, in her own name.
The crowds at the Relief society build-
ing are still as large as usual, and the
winters campaign is merely begun, |